Death sometimes comes unannounced

With the service at St Illtud's Oxwich at ten this morning, I arranged to take the cooked breakfast offered by Oxwich Bay Hotel as part of the holiday booking at nine rather than nine thirty, to ensure I had time to be punctual. It was nne twenty by the time I was served, and twenty to ten by the time I left to walk to church, just as the rest of the family arrived for breakfast.

There were sixteen of us, plus Sue the newly ordained voluntary priest serving the West Gower group of churches. We started outside, singing 'Morning has broken', as we can't yet sing inside a small church - St Illtud's seats about seventy, in effect twenty under current social distancing regime. After Communion we went outside for to sing a final hymn (a version of Psalm 23), and be dismissed with a blessing. Then coffee was served outdoors for the first time. It was lovely to be welcomed back again, to join this small group of villagers who love their church and enjoy sharing life together in this open hearted community of faith.

When I came out of church I received a text message from my friend Martin to tell me about the sudden and unexpected death at 55 of Archdeacon Sue Pinnington in Monmouth. She and Frances our Rector, are in a Civil Partnership, and Martin knew this would be bound to have an impact on our parish life, as indeed it did. Frances announced Sue death on the Parish Whatsapp group at midday and since then a steady stream of parishioners have posted messages of sympathy, and Fr Rhys has organised changes to the ministry rota to cover her absence on bereavement leave. Although I'm on holiday, it meant that I've had to keep an eye on the exchange of messages all day, and contribute to it, as I am able to. Although Sue's job has been in our neighbouring diocese, she has occasionally contributed to the life of our Parish, notably by being the guest Holy Week preacher this year. It's been truly amazing to witness parishioners rallying around their priest in grief and shock today, I daresay it will be quite a while before things get back to normal.

When I rejoined the family, a picnic lunch was being prepared for a walk along the shore in the direction of Three Cliffs Bay. We stopped about two thirds of the way there to eat our sandwiches. Neither Clare Owain or I were sure we could make it all the way and back, and left Kath and Anto to continue to the destination and send us photos.

It was a gloriously hot day, and as evening approached, we gathered again down on the beach to build a fire and make a barbecue supper. Owain Kath and Anto did well to cook veggie and meat variations on three instant barbecue tinfoil trays purchased from different supermarkets. Clare and I were happy to let them get on with it and enjoy the fruit of the labours. My contribution was to forage for driftwood and feed the real proper fire we made. There was a beautiful sunset, then Clare and I headed back to base and left the others sitting around the fire and enjoying the night air. For is two, it was time for bed.

Traditional Sunday worship reimagined

Such an amazing change in the weather this morning, sunshine and blue sky with decorative clouds until mid afternoon, and showers only a little later.

We walked to St Illtud's for the ten o'clock service. This was a Liturgy of the Word only, what Greeks would call a 'Liturgical Synaxis'. It had several well chosen different prayers to start with, and led by four different lay members of the congregation, not wearing liturgical robes. It was beautifully done, relaxed and confident. The people were as welcoming this week as last, and we were happy that we could stay and chat over a drink for half an hour afterwards. 

Altogether it was a lovely experience of being part of a worshipping Christian community. A weekly Sunday Eucharist in each church is not possible with parochial re-grouping, but the alternative really shows how lay worship ministry can shine, even in a conventional and traditional conservative setting.

The sermon slot was dedicated to a TEAR Fund presentation by a young women who is their regional representative in Wales. She spoke about a video which was shown, telling the story of a Nigerian woman's struggle to feed her family in an inland regions acutely impoverished by climate change and structural economic injustice. It showed what TEAR Fund was able to offer in developing women's self-help groups which operated a form of credit union style savings club, and mutual support in learning and adopting new agricultural resources. 

Central to this initiative is bible study and a church planting project. It's a matter of indifference what the religious label of the church might be, what counts is the integrated approach to making life worthwhile and full of the Gospel in practice. It was simply presented and thoughtful. It reminded me of the years I spent working as USPG Area Secretary in Wales. Gower was one of the places I got to visit and work during those years.

We treated ourselves to Sunday lunch in the Oxwich Bay Hotel. It was traditional fare, meat and five veg. A veggie option for Clare and a handsome chunk of roast lamb for me. More than enough to fuel another beach walk, plus a visit to the bird-wby atching hide in the marsh later on.

We are debating about returning to Cardiff tomorrow instead of Tuesday morning, as another rainy day may cramp our style yet again, and we're nervous at the prospect of flooded roads recurring. We'll see.